A few weeks ago when I got back from CES I went out and met up with my usual group of friends. Being the “tech guy” in the group two of my friends had to show me their new phones. Both were smartphones to my surprise, most of my friends are not tech people at all and have no need for all of the functions of a smartphone. The 2 phones were the Samsung Moment and the HTC myTouch. My two friends were really excited to show me how they customized the Android home screen and all of the applications they had. I’m an iPhone guy and I’ve had my iPhone for quite a while. It felt good having one of the only phones that could have apps on it, but now almost anyone can get an Android phone! This begs the question, is Android taking over the mobile OS market?
So what is Android?
Android is a mobile operating system that is based on a modified version of the Linux kernel. Much like your Windows installation you are able to install programs on it. In July 2005 Google acquired Android and in November 2007 the Android mobile OS distribution was unveiled. At first there were many mixed reviews of the operating system saying that it was not ready for prime-time yet, but since the release of the 2.0 software and the release of popular phones like the Motorola DROID and Google’s Nexus One things have surely improved for Android. Right now there are around 20 phones that come with Android pre-installed and at CES we even saw some internet tablets running the Android operating system.
The Microsoft Effect?
When home computers started becoming popular there were 2 main operating systems MAC OS and Windows. MAC OS was limited to Apple’s computer systems only whereas Windows could run only pretty much any hardware. We all known who won that war, Microsoft came out on top even though as many say their operating system was inferior to the MAC OS operating system. The Windows operating system became more popular had access to it and it was running on more machines. With more people using the software more people developed for it meaning there were more applications available.
Is this what Google is trying to do with Android? It seems so if they wanted to lock down this software to their Nexus One phone they would not have developed Android under the free software and open source license. This means if you are a handset manufacturer and you want Android on your phone your device you can have it on there! This also gives people a choice when it comes to getting a phone, you are not locked into once device that runs the software. I think this is what is making Android a real contender in the mobile OS market.
Does it Compare to the iPhone
No doubt we had to compare Android to the iPhone OS. Android already has one over on the iPhone OS as it can run more than one application at a time. This is a huge pain when I’m using my iPhone, for example I can’t listen to Pandora and browse the web at the same time. Simple things like that would make the iPhone OS so much better. This makes me wonder how successful Apple’s iPad tablet will be if you can only run one app at a time.
Let’s talk about Apps, Apple’s App store has the most apps for sure, but Android is slowly catching up. On December 15th there were 20,000 available apps on the Android marketplace and they say by March there will be 30,000! So the developer community is growing and we are seeing some of the very popular apps for the iPhone being developed for Android. Also developers don’t have to go through the long wait time of getting an app approved like they have to do with the iPhone OS, I’ve heard of some developers having to wait months till their app was approved! On the other hand Apple’s approval process does give you the user some security when downloading applications that are developed by 3rd parties.
The iPhone does have Android beat when it comes to games. There are games for the Android operating system, but there are far more and better quality games for the iPhone OS. Apple markets their iPod touch as a mobile gaming device more than an MP3 player!
So with the iPhone OS you have the original iPhone, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 3G, all of which are basically the same device, and the iPod touch. This is a very limited device catalog considering you can get around 20 Android phones right now. Also keep in mind that unless you jailbreak and unlock the iPhone you are stuck on AT&T’s network, which for many people is not that great.
Will Android Succeed?
At first when Android came out this was the big question, but I think it’s been answered. Proof of that is the adoption of the operating system by handset manufacturers and all the developers that are creating applications for Android. Google’s free and open system with Android is making it more available to people and making it succeed. The iPhone is marketed as “tech” device which discourages many average consumers. Android is just an operating system so all those “tech” features in the OS are just a plus when you purchase an Android device. So is your next phone going to be an Android phone? Let us know in the comments!
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I think what people want most from a mobile operating system is; ease of use and a low purchase price. Providing an operating system for free will lower the total manufacturing and purchase price.
I'm not sold on google o/s for computers but I can see a real use for this mobile o/s. So long as it's not a turd like windows mobile.
Many of the Android devices use a rollerball. HTC does this especially, with the T-Mobile G1 and the Nexus One. That way, I can use the phone without having to take off my gloves on a wintery day.
Multitasking is a double-edged sword. The iPhone can't multitask, but every app runs with the full support of the CPU and memory because of it. Android phones can slow down as more and more always-running apps are installed.
The G1 falls to this a lot (my phone). It takes some adjustment of usage patterns to conquer it, like exiting apps by returning to the home screen every time you're done with something.
Android is amazing!! and keeps getting more and more amazing!! the only bad thing about it, is that there are so many new and better phones with Android that come out right after another phone! i.e. the Nexus One has come out, but now there's the Bravo, the Scorpion (rumored, but i believe it) that its tough to buy one because u know that in a few weeks, there will be rumors of another faster phone with the newest update! lol!! but still, Android is awesome and is taking over!! i have a Mytouch and i like it, but of course, i want a Nexus One! 😉
Ive had an iphone 3g for just over a year now. I love it and it has been good to me over this time but im sick of paying over the odds with apple! For the price, android handsets generally have superior hardware and I would rather get more 'bang for my buck' than the prestige of owning an iphone. An HTC android phone it is for me next!!
i already have any android phone and my next one will most likely be android there are so many to pick from that are very appealing now, so many that it makes you forget all about iphone
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oh this topic… nice to visit your site. wish you post another good topic like this. I will wait to read it.
I think eventually the Android will take over the market. It's got a huge dent in the market share and is available on multiple phones (My favorites: Droid X, Droid, Droid.Incredible).
I've never been an iPhone fan, so I welcome our Android overlords.
I think the best thing that Google can do is to work with memory manufacturers to put/embed their OS, drivers database, and even applications on memory modules with the size of 128GB or oven 256 and in the future 512GB memory. I don't understand why we still need hard disks or hard drives on computers when we can have memory ships with 256 GB or larger.
I am not an IT guy but from I have been reading for the last 20 years and from what I can see happening in the industry for the last few years and the advent of the iPhone, iPad and Nokia N900 and other tablet PC's I believe the concept I am talking about is very feasible and technologically attainable with very little investment in R&D.
This could be done in two stages, first one is to have the OS, drivers, and basic applications embedded on the memory chip while keeping a hard disk for much bigger applications like Microsoft office, Adobe creative applications, games and every other application which are widely used by a lot of computer users around the world and the advantage with this option would be instant startup, longer battery life and reduced risk of losing information caused by hard drive failures as the operating system is stored on memory chip which less sensitive and vulnerable to chocks.
Stage two will be removing the hard disk altogether and using memory chips for storage of OS, drivers, applications and games. I will leave it for the experts to list all the benefits of this kind of configurations including cost benefits in my opinion.
Google will also have to design very cool applications, desktop, laptop computers and tablets……
I think Google will have a great opportunity to take over both Apple and Microsoft within few years if they can build their own branded desktop and laptop computers with their OS, drivers, applications embedded on large size memory chips and replace the hard disk technology for ever.
Sam Younes
Entrepreneur dreaming of a better computing world